TY - JOUR
T1 - Supply Chain of Things
T2 - A Connected Solution to Enhance Supply Chain Productivity
AU - Wu, Chung Kit
AU - Tsang, Kim Fung
AU - Liu, Yucheng
AU - Zhu, Hongxu
AU - Wei, Yang
AU - Wang, Hao
AU - Yu, Tsz Tat
N1 - Full text of this publication does not contain sufficient affiliation information. With consent from the author(s) concerned, the Research Unit(s) information for this record is based on the existing academic department affiliation of the author(s).
PY - 2019/8
Y1 - 2019/8
N2 - The ubiquitous connectivity between the things in a supply chain ecosystem will contribute to the information flow essential for establishing smart solutions for efficient, reliable, and intelligent supply chain operations. In this article, a new model integrating supply chain and IoT, referred to as SCoT, is proposed to evolve into SSCE and thus enhance supply chain productivity. Productivity in this article considers not only the rate of product output but also product quality and the rate of new product development. First, the ubiquitous and ultra-reliable connectivity necessary for connecting all things in SCoT is newly defined. Four fundamental applications in SSCE are identified, and four related use cases are discussed. Seamless information access in the fully connected SCoT network will facilitate supply chain management. A novel universal SCoT platform is thus proposed to perform intelligent operations on quality measurement, product integration, and decision making. Hitherto, there is no universal standard that quantitatively grades all Supply Chain of Things with a single indicator. To ensure the platform's objectiveness and consistency, an emerging IoT standard of IEEE P2668, namely IDex, is incorporated into the platform. IDex provides quantitative measurement, grading, and ranking of all IoT things. In addition, IDex also benefits the platform by contributing three extra functions to advise on a solution for quality improvement, integration guidance, and performance prediction. Ultimately, SCoT will proliferate five key impacts on automated quality control, efficient integration, smart transportation, intelligent decision making, and end-to-end traceability. Finally, three key future research directions in the implementation of SCoT are discussed.
AB - The ubiquitous connectivity between the things in a supply chain ecosystem will contribute to the information flow essential for establishing smart solutions for efficient, reliable, and intelligent supply chain operations. In this article, a new model integrating supply chain and IoT, referred to as SCoT, is proposed to evolve into SSCE and thus enhance supply chain productivity. Productivity in this article considers not only the rate of product output but also product quality and the rate of new product development. First, the ubiquitous and ultra-reliable connectivity necessary for connecting all things in SCoT is newly defined. Four fundamental applications in SSCE are identified, and four related use cases are discussed. Seamless information access in the fully connected SCoT network will facilitate supply chain management. A novel universal SCoT platform is thus proposed to perform intelligent operations on quality measurement, product integration, and decision making. Hitherto, there is no universal standard that quantitatively grades all Supply Chain of Things with a single indicator. To ensure the platform's objectiveness and consistency, an emerging IoT standard of IEEE P2668, namely IDex, is incorporated into the platform. IDex provides quantitative measurement, grading, and ranking of all IoT things. In addition, IDex also benefits the platform by contributing three extra functions to advise on a solution for quality improvement, integration guidance, and performance prediction. Ultimately, SCoT will proliferate five key impacts on automated quality control, efficient integration, smart transportation, intelligent decision making, and end-to-end traceability. Finally, three key future research directions in the implementation of SCoT are discussed.
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U2 - 10.1109/MCOM.2019.1900120
DO - 10.1109/MCOM.2019.1900120
M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal
SN - 0163-6804
VL - 57
SP - 78
EP - 83
JO - IEEE Communications Magazine
JF - IEEE Communications Magazine
IS - 8
M1 - 8808167
ER -